The Daily Comics Review: Manic Monday

by Hal Bent

Crank up the Bangles, 80s pop music lovers, it's just another Manic Monday here at the Daily Comics Review (and we wish it was Sunday!).  Vacation is over for me, I'm back to the grind at the 9 to 5 job, and now can kick back on the couch with my menagerie of pets so happy to see me home again and ready to kick back and review some comic strips:

Thatababy by Paul Trap:

It was a lot of set-up to get to the punchline, so I have to credit Trap here for putting in the effort, but--I know I only raised two kids so don't call me Dr. Spock or anything--giving an infant Legos to play with? Seriously?  My son choked twice (once on candy that was left on the floor and once on a mint) when he was little and I aged ten years in the very short period of time it took to dislodge it. Little kids pick things up and put them in their mouth. There is a reason Legos are not recommended for small children.  Small pieces like that near a small child and this is a serious health hazard. I may be oversensitive to this, but this is really tweaking me seeing this in print. 


Real Life Adventures by Gary Wise and Lance Aldrich:

Wait, I thought Hugh Hefner got women because of his good looks, charm, and suave demeanor, just like the magazine articles always indicate.  Just kidding, I know. Of course, if you are looking for relationships as real as his "reality shows" like he is, I guess the dollar signs speak the truth there. 


Pearls Before Swine by Stephan Pastis:

Pastis does such a great job here of not only poking fun at every serialized drama in the newspaper comic strips (as he does here making in fun of the insane coincidences that set-up contrived drama sequences ala Gil Thorpe, Apartment 3-G, Mary Worth, et al) but also of including himself and poking fun of himself in the strip. Of course, I would probably have liked this better if he just popped up in the last panel without the word balloon, but I guess that would be a bit too obtuse for some of the audience. 


Nancy by Guy Gilchrist:

At first, I thought: Why is Sluggo in California and why was he thrown out?
Then, I thought: Where did his cousin get $200?
Finally, I thought: Why do I care? This is Sluggo, I hope he ends up in Ziggy's basement love dungeon by the fourth panel. 

* 

That's all for today, my readers.  Thank you as always for visiting. Have a great day.

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Hump Day Equals DINOSAUR FIGHT!

It's already Wednesday? This week is flying by at high speed.  No time to waste: On with the show!

Pearls Before Swine by Stephan Pastis:

Wait, Pig eats bacon and sausages??? NOOOOOO!!!!!!! Pig, you cannibal!  On a side note, I bet real pigs would eat bacon and sausages without any understanding and compunction.  They really do eat anything food that you throw in front of them.  Of course, I think this used to be my diet back in the day. The unfunny part is that I probably deluded myself in the same way as Pig!


Soup to Nutz by Rick Stromoski:

I add Soup to Nuts here, not to bemoan that the United States still fails to grasp the metric system (rebels, baby! we're a nation of rebels!), but rather to mention Andrew's use of kilometerstone rather than milestone.  Really, it's an intelligent and accurate usage. Milestone dates back to the Romans marking the roads in the 3rd century, which means they weren't exactly using the United States mile as the unit of measurement. 

I also bring it up to highlight an embarrassing episode from my youth, where when learning about the metric system, I understood kilometer having read about it, but never used it in conversation or heard it on TV (I was allowed to watch baseball, not much else, in my youth as TV, per my father, was the idiot box rotting our brains).  So when talking about it in the class, I had no idea what the teacher was talking about with kilometer, as I had it in my mind as a "kilo" "meter" (that is, I pronounced it kee-loh mee-tuhr instead of kil ohm eh ter).  God knows what my classmates thought of me mangling the words, but I wanted to dig a hole under my desk and crawl away.  Funny how a memory like that stays with you into adulthood. 


Alley Oop by Jack and Carole Bender:

I'm not a big Alley Oop fan (at least, not since I was 8 and found a collection of classic newspaper comics at my grandfather's house...I still preferred Terry and the Pirates, The Katzenjammer Kids, and Thimble Theatre), but...DINOSAUR FIGHT!!!  WHOO-HOO!!!


9 to 5 by Harley Schwadron:

Gotta hand to Shwadron, that's EVERY company's business model.  I should have scrounged capital in the late 90's and started a crappy tech company to pump full of venture capital cash and get a rich business to shell out a ton of cash during that six-month period in 1999 when any company an "i" in front of it.  I was THAT close to being that greedy CEO in the cartoon. 


The Meaning of Lila by John Forgetta and L.A. Rose:

I like the Meaning of Lila. It's semi-hip, entertaining, and doesn't pander to the audience like some of the horror-shows that remain in syndication.  I add it here because it reminds me of my wife: she always had said to me "you're really a nice guy.  You must have some evil side. Where do you bury all the bodies?"

Of course, I never tell her where I stashed them all...

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Liquefy the Street Melons

Big Top by Rob Harrell:

I love phrases that sound dirty, but really aren't.  Like anything referring to kumquats, for example.  It sounds like a bizarre sexual euphemism, but is actually a tame word.  I am definitely working "I haven't had quiche this moist in ages!" into a conversation on St. Paddy's day when feasting on quiche before the corned beef and cabbage.  Of course, I'll laugh like crazy and no one will know why I find it funny, but why should I start NOT humiliating my wife when we go to a party now?


Gasoline Alley by Jim Scancarelli:

So this is what happens when you skip Gasoline Alley for a few days: cross-species marriage.  When last I checked, Red Hat Bumpkin was negotiating a dowry for Black Hat Hillbilly's daughter.  Apparently, I skip a few days and it's full-bore bestiality in the comics pages.  Look at that donkey (mule? Is it already a cross-breed?), he/she is pretty darned happy for the honeymoon with Red Hat Bumpkin. 


Pearls Before Swine by Stephan Pastis:

I love Rat. That is all. Sometimes the best character in the comics pages needs to be acknowledged.


Ziggy by Tom Wilson & Tom II: 

The waiter wants Ziggy to be mutilated by the Lobster! Hah! I wish I was just an impartial observer, but I am totally partial to the Lobster.  I'd love to see him crack that idiot Ziggy open.  Even better, he's at the Lobster Hut, so I can take a short drive down to historic Plymouth, MA and get a table and watch that idiot Ziggy get his just desserts. 

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Thursday : The Good.....and the sad....

appy Thursday! Less than four days until Halloween. I love living in a city where trick or treating is still done on 31 October and not moving it to the weekend just because it seems more convenient. Well, enough about that. On with the comics.....

The Good

Pearls Before Swine

Like a comfy sweatshirt on a cool, fall day, Pearls Before Swine rarely disappoints. This one is great, start to finish. I'm hoping the pillow from panels 1 and 2 isn't stuffed in the toilet.

Flying McCoys

Somewhere, Walt is turning over in his grave and/or his cryogenically frozen head is sobbing. However, good news for us, is that we get this comic panel. Love the look on Tramp's face.

The Sad

Picking on Pluggers is just to easy so I usually don't even bother. However, something about this panel really bugs me. What entry, exactly, is the Plugger reading in the "A" volume of World Book where he sees cars from the 50's? My guess would be Automobile but, if you look at the book, he is about half way through A and Automobile would be further towards the end. Or, maybe this is a special Plugger "A" volume where the Automobile entry takes up half the book. Or maybe he just randomly opened up the book and just started daydreaming about cars. Those whacky Pluggers!

Broom Hilda

The answer, by looking at the word balloons, would be either (a) her right shoe or (b) her hat.

And that's all for today. Happy Halloween, everyone!

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The Monster at the End of This Post

It's Saturday and I actually had some time today to go through some of today's comics and make a post. Also, join me on Twitter and take a look at my site that I actually seem to update everyday. Onto the comics and there's an announcement at the bottom that you may or may not like.

I'm going to start today's post with something I never thought would happen...

Dinette Set

Today's Dinette Set actually made me laugh.

Ziggy

Ziggy is going to take a page from the Jim Davis book of cartooning and introduce a little chick for Ziggy to hang around with a la Orson and Booker from U.S. Acres.

Pearls Before Swine

To be honest, I don't think Alice would be a fan of the Keane children.

Frazz

Did Mallett accidentally leave out the word tails or does Jef feel like he's important enough to change the rules of how to layout a comic strip. Bill Watterson was able to do it because he was Bill @%!!ing Watterson. Jef Mallett is not Bill Watterson.

Marmaduke

Eva Braun is willing to have Marmaduke rip her arm off just so she can have a cell phone glued to her ear. First world problems.

Rubes

Did she kill Al or did he die naturally (of an anger induced heart attack judging by the look permanently on his face?)

The Born Loser

Sweetest Day is a made-up celebration mainly observed in the Great Lakes Region of the Midwest. It was created by confectioners in Cleveland on 1922 because there apparently was a need for more pointless days to give trinkets, candy and flowers to a loved one. Also, Brutus does not know his own wife of Xty-five years.

And the announcement:  This will be my last DCR post. I've been a part of the DCR for a long time and I have enjoyed showcasing both good and bad comic strips to the readers here and hanging out with the other posters in cyberspace. I will still be active on my own site so please feel free to go over there every day and see what's going on. And with that...my last comic.

Scary Gary

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Thursday quickie

Hi! Cara here. Only have time for a couple of comics that caught my eye.


Family Tree:

This conversation makes Disney shows look accurate to how teenage girls talk.

F Minus:

I think everyone knows someone like this. pretends to know everything but instead gets everything wrong.

Pearls Before Swine:

Another perfect gem from Pearls. You never disappoint.

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